19th Asian Games - Hangzhou 2022 (23 Sept - 8 Oct 2023) - Women’s Volleyball Tournament (30 Sept - 7 Oct)

Quote from Julian Chow

The Kazakh attack is, well, ok.. I'm impressed with no.16 Nikitina the opposite, but their floor defense is hopeless

Their liberos have really nice hair though

This squad is utilizing the back attack a lot like the A Team. Tanaka's always been good at it and Yuki's looking pretty good

I've always liked Tominaga Iwasaki's toss work, and that she likes to kill the ball every now and then

the Tsukasa to Ogawa connection was awkward

What! Diao Lin-yu is injured and might be heavy on her hand!!!

I guess the Japan vs Afghanistan match is included in Guiness? 25-0 in Set 2

Quote from Julian Chow

Did Ding Xia replace her ?

Yes. Ding Xia finished the rest match against North Korea.

China vs. DP Republic of Korea 25-13, 25-15, 25-8... have never watched the volleyball match of this Korea.

Hopefully Diao Lin-yu's injury is not severe, but chance is she may be absent from the rest of the event to prevent her injury getting worse.

Quote from Julian Chow

I think it's geo blocked where I am atm

Sorry my bad, I ain't aware that the tab had my VPN activated (open multibrowsers with multitabs) thus the link worked for the Asian Games... due to the event broadcast rights, it cannot be accessed freely... but in the most sport events it should be okay.

Quote from jaeden85

I guess the Japan vs Afghanistan match is included in Guiness? 25-0 in Set 2

wow... imagine serving 25 times consecutively (in an official match)

Here's the story on the Afghanistan Volleyball Team as reported by Reuters. It's on a lot of news sites.

https://www.reuters.com/sports…n-asian-games-2023-09-27/

Quote

HANGZHOU, China, Sept 27 (Reuters) - On a pristine volleyball court on the seventh floor of a massive training centre in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, a team of Afghanistan women prepare for their first Asian Games in defiance of the Taliban government's antipathy toward female sport.

Though separated from families and scattered across Asia, the volleyballers have assembled at the multi-sport event with the support of Olympic officials and the sport's global federation. Some fled Afghanistan when the Taliban came to power in the wake of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, fearing persecution from a government that has effectively banned women's sport.

With little prospect of returning home, they have rebuilt their lives in Pakistan, Iran and other countries, playing sport in effective exile.

Now in Hangzhou, they yearn to give hope to the hopeless - the women athletes left behind in their homeland.

"Nowadays, they are looking for hope," Mursal Khedri, a Pakistan-based, 24-year-old member of the volleyball team, told Reuters.

"By seeing us here they can find hope that we (women) can also participate in sports."

The Taliban administration say they respect women's rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan custom and that they have declared a "general amnesty" against their former foes under the previous foreign backed government.

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Quote from Julian Chow

I saw in a Thai blog someone mentioned the team comprise Afgan women from outside their country.. the players are very new to the game and some might be playing it for the first time

Yup, not looking down on the Afgan team, just purely from a player's perspective that must've been a first (perhaps in history too?)

Definitely with the story of how the Afgan team came together it does shift the perspective a bit and put Japan in an awkward position for being so "merciless", a missed serve at the end of the set would have been merciful

When I personally used to play in competitive sports, I felt more embarrassed if the opponent ever took it easy on us, but I do suppose when the audience is so large and televised... a mercy point would have been better instead

Pool F is the venue without streaming? so we will only get to watch Pool E games?